League survival has always been Neil Aspin’s priority this season, but it doesn’t hurt to get some national recognition along the way.

So, plenty of Port Vale fans were astonished that Aspin was overlooked for the League Two manager of the month award for December as the EFL instead went for Lincoln’s Danny Cowley.

Aspin appeared to be in with a great chance because Vale took 13 points from 15 in December, the equal best points tally along with Lincoln.

But Vale also recorded wins against promotion-chasing Coventry and Luton, in the latter case a thumping 4-0 win at home to the leaders.

Vale supporter Jean Jackson, from Oakhill, argued that Aspin should have won it because, not only were Vale's results better, Aspin had a tougher task at Vale than Cowley had at Lincoln.

Port Vale boss Neil Aspin watches the 2-0 win over Cambridge

She wrote to the EFL to demand an explanation and has kindly allowed us to publish her letter…..

Sir

I wonder if you could explain to me what criteria were used by the panel to decide on the League Two Manager of the Month Award for December.

A league table of results during the month shows that the manager with the best record was Port Vale’s Neil Aspin. His team achieved the same number of points as Lincoln but with a better goal difference. The team produced the result of the season in League Two so far when it hammered runaway leaders Luton Town 4-0 and achieved their points total despite an extremely difficult set of fixtures.

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Lincoln, on the other hand, played three of their five games against teams in the bottom third. It’s also worth noting that unlike Danny Cowley, Neil Aspin has only been in post since October having inherited a team which had achieved the grand total of 5 points in its first 11 games. By the end of December Aspin had transformed the club’s fortunes with 26 points from 14 games, dragging them clear of the relegation places despite being unable to change his squad.

The citation accompanying the award to Danny Cowley makes reference to FA Cup victories against Ipswich, Burnley and Brighton, all of which occurred last season and can have had no possible relevance to the award for December this season.

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PS: The EFL responded to Jean. Their response included the explanation that the panel take into account various things.

The EFL say that although results play a strong part, there needs to be consideration of the wider context of performance and other factors taken into account. They say that otherwise there would be no need for a panel or a shortlist and it would just be given straight to the manager of the team with the highest number of accrued points.

Jean says she appreciated the reply, but found the explanation baffling.